By Francesca Di Meglio

New Nobel Winners for Carnegie Mellon


Business professors Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott won the 2004 Nobel Prize in economics for their macroeconomic research on time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles. The Royal Swedish Academy of Science in Stockholm, the group that gives out the prestigious award, cited Kydland and Prescott for research they did while professors at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh. With six Nobelists on record, Tepper now ties the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business for the most winners.

Kydland is on leave from Tepper and will be teaching at the University of California-Santa Barbara this winter. Prescott is now a faculty member at Arizona State University. Other CMU Nobel laureates include Herbert Simon ('78), Franco Modigliani ('85), Merton Miller ('90), and Robert Lucas ('95).

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Harvard Democrats Rise Again


In the weeks before President George W. Bush won reelection, some Harvard Business School students -- who are typically known as Republicans -- started showing their blue side. HBS Democrats, a student-run group that relaunched a year ago, has made itself heard on campus. They've attracted 200 dues-paying members, vs. 75 for the HBS Republicans. A recent poll taken by HBS Democrats showed that around 55% of HBS students consider themselves Democrats.

CEO SIGHTINGS.  The club sponsored a key appearance by Warren Buffett, chief exec of investment group Berkshire Hathaway and adviser to Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry. Says Jenny Abramson, co-president of the club: "You can be a Democrat and be pro-business and in favor of a sound economic policy."

Abramson spent Election night in South Dakota driving voters to the polls and says Bush's victory won't slow down the club's efforts. "We're really excited to help prepare other B-school students to be leaders in business and the broader community," she says.

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Italian Prof Gets ISBM's Top Job


The International Schools of Business Management (ISBM), a 30-year-old group that educates business faculty, last week named Italy's SDA Bocconi Professor Ferdinando Pennarola chairman of the ISBM's board of directors. ISBM, which has taught more than 1,000 professors, covers teaching methods for all programs from undergraduate to executive education.

CLASSROOM CLUES.  Pennarola, 41, says he wants to maintain continuity and tradition at ISBM. He adds that a practitioner's view is essential in every business classroom. A professor of organization and management of information systems, Pennarola says he tries to combine established theories with simulations and hands-on exercises to prepare his students for today's business world.

B-schools have to function in a low-cost economy and still produce high-quality education, Pennarola says. International schools have an additional burden: competing with well-known U.S. programs. Non-U.S. B-schools have to creatively leverage their distinctive local features and their global mindset, he adds. "Research excellence is important, only if combined with teaching excellence that ultimately impacts on the quality of learning."

Pennarola's main research is about service-management and professional-service firms. He joined the Bocconi faculty in 1986. In 1993, he established the Center for New Learning Technologies at Bocconi, a research and application lab that creates new teaching materials. He also consults for the Italian government on developing broadband telecommunications.

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